Stop romanticizing the Victorian era: Women were taught their sexuality was “completely dormant until her legal husband touched her” – “When most people think of the Victorian era, they think about the romantic details you see in the movies: the lavish dresses, the ornate furniture, the elaborate and exacting table manners people were expected to adopt. Author Therese Oneill wants readers to look at the other side of Victorian life. In her new book, ‘Unmentionable: The Victorian Lady’s Guide to Sex, Marriage, and Manners,’ Oneill digs deep into the aspects of Victorian women’s lives that these women would never discuss in public, from how they went to the bathroom to how they were expected to deal with matters in the bedroom.”

What The Real Witches Of America Eat – “The banal diet of the neighborhood witch is one of several stereotype-busting nuggets to be found in Alex Mar’s book Witches of America, an immersive first-person study of paganism in the U.S. Her book was preceded by a documentary called American Mystic. In the course of describing how and why Americans from different backgrounds and belief systems are drawn to the occult, Mar also reveals how food is used in the rites of contemporary witchcraft.”

An epic battle between feminism and deep-seated misogyny is under way in South Korea – “Megalia’s online activism was a bold step in a country where women continue to face discrimination at home, in the workplace, and on the streets. Yet as more women push against deep-set conservative attitudes in Korea, the backlash has been vicious. Young Korean men, who no longer enjoy the same economic security and position of power in society, are virtually, and literally, taking their frustrations out on women.”

An Actual Response to Sexual Harassment in Virtual Reality that I Think Is Actually Rad – “Men not conceiving of possibilities for violence that are obvious to women and other marginalized people isn’t new; the road to hell is paved with well-intentioned men. I think I have an inkling of how two developers might have overlooked something so obvious. After all, cyberspace was never built for us; it was built by and for straight cis white men. We are already seeing the repercussions of an entire facet of our existence being designed and built by only a small subset of its end user demographic in many areas of tech, and now we are repeating our mistakes with virtual reality. As with most of the tech sector, VR environments seem to be developed mostly by men”

The history of Satanic Panic in the US — and why it’s not over yet – “Most people, if they know of the Satanic Panic, know of it due to satanic ritual abuse, a rash of false allegations made against daycare centers in the ’80s. But there are lots of threads that contribute to Satanic Panic, and they can be seen running through a handful of recent social and cultural events: the wave of clown scares throughout the country; the new TV series based on The Exorcist; the weekend release of Ouija 2: Origin of Evil; and the October 23 death of fire-and-brimstone evangelical tract writer Jack Chick. All of these events feel lifted straight from this darker era of American culture, when fear of demons and strangers practicing dark occult things seemed to lurk in the heart of every neighborhood.”

Mary

Mary Brock is a scientist who works on drugs you've hopefully never heard of. She enjoys cooking to Blue Grass music, messing with her cats, and hosting the Boston Skeptics' Book Club. She was born in the South but loves living in New England (despite the lack of chocolate chip pizza). Mary does not use Twitter and don't even try to follow her, because she is always looking over her shoulder.

The HP Lovecraft Historical Society has released a few Christmas parody albums. I like them because when I’m being overloaded with Christmas music in public, I can hear the Lovecraft lyrics instead. They also work for Halloween. I’m particularly fond of ‘It’s beginning to look allot like fishmen’.

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The Skepchick Network is a collection of smart and often sarcastic blogs focused on science and critical thinking. The original site is Skepchick.org, founded by Rebecca Watson in 2005 to discuss women’s issues from a skeptical standpoint.